Ricky Ponting blamed his batsmen for Australia's heavy defeat in the third and final Test against South Africa.

Ponting said Australia's capitulation for 209 on the first day was "so poor it just didn't give us a chance to compete in the game".

Not even 422, thanks to a ton from man of the series Mitchell Johnson, was enough to spare Australia from an innings defeat.

"Two-hundred and nine on that wicket, sure it did a little bit for most of that first day but I think we showed even in Durban and Johannesburg where it seamed all over the place that we're more than capable of scoring more runs than that," Ponting said.

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"We've got to take a bit of the responsibility for that. Even in the second innings, all our batsmen got starts and we only had one guy make a hundred.

"You look at their batting and the guys that got away from them most of them went on and made big hundreds. That was probably the difference in the game."

Ponting denied that the Australians' week-long sabbatical after wrapping up the series in the second Test had contributed to the defeat in Cape Town.

"We got away for a few days, freshened up and our training leading into this game was better than it was in before the first two games," he said.

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"It's always hard to judge there. Your skills never go away, a lot of the time it's about being 100 percent mentally switched on and maybe we're all a little bit guilty of not quite being there this game."

Ponting said Johnson, who was left stranded on 99 in the first Test, fully deserved his maiden century.

"I think we've seen in this series just how dangerous and capable he is with the bat," he said.

"I've said for a long time I've got no doubt he can turn himself into a very good Test-match all-rounder for us.

"A couple of performances like this over the last couple of weeks won't hurt his chances of being able to do that."

Johnson said he was not prepared to consider himself an all-rounder just yet.

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"I'm happy to be batting at eight or nine so bowling's always going to come first for me, then my batting," he said.

"If I can contribute with the bat, that's great. Call me what you like, all-rounder, bowler, batter, whatever."